This invention relates to contact lenses, in particular, to contact lenses having high oxygen permeability. The cornea is avascular, so the oxygen required for eye health must be transmitted from the atmosphere. If contact lenses are worn, the atmospheric oxygen transfer is blocked. Therefore, contact lenses must be oxygen permeable enough to transmit sufficient oxygen to the cornea. If sufficient oxygen is not transmitted to the cornea, comfort and eye health are affected. The highest oxygen permeability of rigid gas permeable (RGP) contact lenses is currently around 100 barrers. A RGP contact lens having higher oxygen permeability is desired.
Poly(trimethylsilylpropyne), PTMSP, was first prepared by Masuda in 1983 (ref 1). The high oxygen permeability of PTMSP was first announced in the Jan. 2, 1984 issue of Chemical and Engineering News (ref 2). PTMSP has the highest oxygen permeability of any known polymer, around 6000 barrers. This is ten times the oxygen permeability of polydimethylsiloxane, previously known as the most highly oxygen permeable polymer. Many attempts have been made to produce polymers with higher oxygen permeabilities than PTMSP, but these attempts have been unsuccessful so far.
The use of polyacetylenes including PTMSP to make contact lenses having higher oxygen permeability than current materials would be desirable, however, contact lenses from polyacetylenes are not known. Conventional methods to produce RGP contact lenses do not work for polyacetylenes. Existing RGP contact lenses are machined from polymer blanks or cast in static molds. Polyacetylenes do not lend themselves to these techniques to form contact lenses. Also, polyacetylenes are very hydrophobic and unsuitable for contact lens use directly. Existing methods to make contact lenses add wetting agents (hydrophilic monomers such as methacrylic acid, n-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone or hydroxyethyl maetacrylate) to the monomer formulation. This technique cannot be used with polyacetylenes.
A method for forming contact lenses that have high oxygen permeability from polyacetylenes is needed.